Friday, February 20, 2009

Readers of The Racquetball Blog (RTRBs) are overwhelming in their prediction of a victory for Kane Waselenchuk at the International Racquetball Tour's (IRT's) Seattle Open, and why not? Waselenchuk has won all but one of the tournaments he has entered this year, and is well on the way regaining the IRT's #1 ranking.

Alvaro Beltran is RTRBs's second choice, and The Racquetball Blog has gone on record saying that we think Beltran's game style matches up best with Waselenchuk. However, Beltran likely needs to get through Jack Huczek to have an opportunity to play Waselenchuk, who's on the other side of the draw from Beltran. Beltran's career record versus Huczek of 5-24 is not good, although it's 1-1 this season.

A Waselenchuk-Huczek match-up would also only happen in the final, and Waselenchuk would be favored in that, as he's won all their meetings this season, including a three straight game victory in New York City, the most recent Tier 1 IRT event. You might like to see a Huczek upset, but we think there's a little more motivation for Waselenchuk against Huczek, who's often been talked about as his greatest rival. That motivation likely runs from Huczek also for similar reasons, and that Waselenchuk is positioning himself to take the top spot, which Huczek would surely like to have for himself.

Rocky Carson now has the top spot, and will potentially meet Waselenchuk in the semi-finals this weekend, if things go according to form in Seattle. Carson went tie breaker with Waselenchuk in Denver, but got crushed at the US Open and beaten in the New York City event. Thus, it's difficult to see Carson knocking off Waselenchuk at this time.

Thus, The Racquetball Blog has to agree with its reader on this one, and pick Kane Waselenchuk to win the Seattle Open.